It has been recognized that esophageal electrodes are particularly useful in connection with noninvasive esophageal pacing. One such electrode is disclosed for example in co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 930,748, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,611, entitled Esophageal Electrocardiography Electrode.
It has also been recognized that transesophageal electrocardiography can be used for the purpose of studying myocardial One such system is disclosed in commonly copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 267,459 entitled Method and For Detection of Posterior Ischemia.
It has also be recognized that transesophageal echocardiography can be utilized for the purpose of detecting or evaluating among other conditions, myocardial ischemia. It would be desirable to be able to combine the capability of esophageal electrodes and the capability of echocardiography probes into a unit so as to be able to stress the heart and simultaneously study its characteristics.